Inspiring

Answered

Image Trace in the newest updates of Illustrator is unaccaptable

Forum|Forum|3 months ago
May 14, 2026
46 replies
344 views

How is it possible to completely destroy the Image Trace tool?! I work with illustrations created in .psd, convert them to bitmap and save them as .tif. The illustrations can be quite detailed and use halftone textures. I have a custom setting for these in illustrator when I use Image Trace to turn them into vector. In the latest couple of updates this has been completely broken and there’s no work around that I have found. PLEASE FIX IT NOW!! The price for Adobe CC is way to high for issues like this to be acceptable.

See screenshots below of preferred outcome and compare to the outcome in the latest version of Illustrator.

Correct answer andreasp53763161

@Anubhav M Okay, so I’ve been able to figure something out now. It’s a mix and match of my previous method and some pointers from other members here in the thread. Tracing results of halftones with this new approach here:

H

Hana07

Participant

Hi: I printed a file original JPEG and placed into Illustrator. I am having issues with Illustrator as the colours look very different for the same file that I printed few times before on the same machine. I updated Illustrator recently. It happened again to a file that has vector elements and the colours turned very different. Anyone experienced similar issues.

Anubhav M

Community Manager

Hello @Hana07,

I'm sorry to hear you're having similar trouble with Illustrator. Would you mind confirming the version of the OS/Illustrator installed and sharing a sample file along with screenshots of the settings used/output, so we can investigate further?

Looking forward to hearing from you.

Anubhav

R

rezon8r

Participating Frequently

They are breaking core features and functionality and moving working versions behind Firefly paywall. The ‘firefly’ version works flawlessly. So the question needs to be asked… what’s the point of a subscription??? They said that they would update the software and the updates would be included for the subscription… now they are breaking the software and asking for even more money for the subscription to actually work.

Ton Frederiks

Community Expert

One thing to be aware of; smaller areas vectorize better and more detailed than larger ones.

I cropped your file with the large white space around it and the smaller version has much more detail.

This is not new, https://illustrator.uservoice.com/forums/601447-illustrator-desktop-bugs/suggestions/40433830-tracing-large-image-gives-worse-results-than-with

andreasp53763161Author

Inspiring

Hasn’t been an issue for me before. Like I’ve said, the car illustration in my original post was created with the exact same method as the knight. The results are night and day.

RvdT

Legend

I made the svg attached using the following website:
https://halftone.xoihazard.com/
See settings in screenshot.

IitQ.svg

andreasp53763161Author

Inspiring

Oh wow! That’s impressive detail. Not quite the vibe I’m going for with my illustration, as it is more of a distressed and gritty look. But I’ll save this tool for whenever I might need more perfect looking halftones. Thanks!

Ton Frederiks

Community Expert

@andreasp53763161 This is what I get when I trace your image on the left.

I adjusted the settings

andreasp53763161Author

Inspiring

That image is already in vector, that’s not the one I have issues with. And when using your settings on the illustration I want to image trace now the results are just unaccptably bad. It can’t handle halftones at all.

Ton Frederiks

Community Expert

@andreasp53763161 Can you share an untraced example? I is not clear what you are showing in your first post.

Anubhav M

Community Manager

Hello @andreasp53763161

I'm sorry to hear about your experience with Image Trace in Illustrator. Would you mind sharing more details, such as the versions of the OS/Illustrator installed, a sample AI file and screenshots of the tracing options used, along with the results, so we can better assist you?

Looking forward to hearing from you.

Anubhav

andreasp53763161Author

Inspiring

Hey!

Sure. I just installed the latest version of Illustrator on wednesday morning (30.4), I don’t remember which version I updated from. I’m also on the latest Sequioa OS. Below is first my personal custom tracing options on a 1200 dpi bitmap at 8000 pixels wide saved as a .tif. This has worked great for years and produced the results I like, as mentioned in my original post. Now it doesn’t.

andreasp53763161Author

Inspiring

And here’s the same method but with tracing options suggested by community experts. This does not produce any sort of acceptable result. There’s a huge difference in what I was able to achieve in previous versions of Illustrator and what the latest version can do.

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